The eldest daughter of Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad took to Twitter when the Women, Family and Community Development Minister had said in an interview with radio station BFM that she would not condone the LGBT community lifestyle, adding that it was haram (forbidden).

very useless ministerget RID of her

Marina tweeted, "Dear @drwanazizah, did you just call a lot of people including me who have shown the slightest bit of compassion towards marginalized people in our society haram??"

She also posted on Twitter a link to Nikkei Asian Review's article which featured PKR-elect president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, quoting him as saying: “Malaysian society must live with different beliefs and ways of life and must respect people who are different, including gays, bisexuals and those who identify as transgender.”

Marina had previously hit out at Dr Wan Azizah when the latter said no criminal action could be taken against a 41-year-old man over his marriage with a 11-year-old girl in Kelantan.

"How much more watertight evidence do we need? This 41 year old man has been interested in her since she was 7 and married her at 11....that’s all the evidence you need!!!" Marina wrote in her Facebook account.

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 30 — A majority of young Malaysian women surveyed by Iman Research disapprove of Datuk Seri Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and found her stance on child marriage weak, contrasting with an earlier survey that saw her become the most popular of six ministers in the Pakatan Harapan government.

The view was widely held by both moderate and conservative Muslim women who felt the deputy prime minister had done little to address the issue while hiding behind “religious excuses”, the survey by think tank Iman found.

Young men in the same focus group had little to say about child marriage but also found the PKR leader unfit to be a deputy prime minister.

“Many of them felt she should have taken more action and be [leaning] more towards protecting child rights instead of saying religion allows for this or that,” Vila Somiah, Iman head of research, told a media briefing on the findings from the focus talks.

Dr Wan Azizah, who is also minister of women, children community development, was widely criticised over the way she handled a child marriage case in Kelantan involving an 11 year-old girl and a 41 year-old rubber tapper.

Critics felt the deputy prime minister did not make her position about the issue clear.

They said while she did condemn the marriage, the PKR leader gave mixed signals when she dismissed criticism towards the authorities for not separating the child from the man.

Most participants from the focus group also viewed her as politically weak, Iman noted.

Many saw Dr Wan Azizah as a political puppet or a seat warmer who is not serious about leading, but one who merely acts on the instruction of her husband, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

“She is seen as a puppet, a lot of her decisions are programmed/influenced by Anwar Ibrahim,” one of the interviewees were quoted as saying.

Other participants had different reasons for disapproving Dr Wan Azizah.

Some women, for example, felt she is “not a feminist” while others thought she was a poor choice as a minister likely because of her soft image, a perception generally held by many of her critics.

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Civil society strongly protests the prime minister’s decision to keep the Council of Eminent Persons (CEP) 100-day report secret simply by saying it is the government’s business.

He has also announced that the Official Secrets Act 1972 (OSA) will stay despite the Pakatan Harapan coalition’s promised revision prior to GE14.

This is in total contradiction to the new government’s commitment to total transparency during the exposés of the Najib Abdul Razak administration just after the May elections.

Refusal to be complicit

NGOs like Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) that submitted their reports to the Institutional Reforms Committee (IRC) certainly want their submissions to be made public so that the public knows that we are not complicit in the new government’s reneging on their GE14 promises.

Since the May elections, many of our human rights demands have not been met and these include not just the OSA but also detention-without-trial laws, the Sedition Act 1948, child marriages, harassment of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and queer (LGBTQ) community and the violations of indigenous peoples’ rights.

If the Harapan government does not make the CEP report public, the people may think that the government acted on our recommendations. Thus, I would like to suggest that the Harapan government releases the IRC report since it was submitted separately to the CEP.

CEP’s reputation at stake

The old BN government used to say that the OSA was needed for national security. Now, the new Harapan government says that submissions to the CEP are “sensitive” and that some businesses may suffer.

Really? Does it justify PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli’s charges under the OSA then since he wasn’t sensitive enough to the health of the corporation he was exposing? After the cows and condos scandal he raised to deserve the charges under the OSA, he might well say, “What a load of bullocks!”

The CEP needs to be reminded that they will be held culpable in Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s recent decisions, which are not just contradictory to the Harapan manifesto but look like the repeat of Mahathir 1.0.

These include the announcement that sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional will be privatised for bumiputera interests and the new national car project Proton 2.0.

Presumably, the prime minister was advised by his Council of Eminent Persons on these decisions. If not, how are we to know when the CEP report is kept secret? I am afraid they will have to live with their tarnished reputation.

Harapan reneging on more promises

This is what was promised to Malaysians in the coalition’s Buku Harapan by Harapan leader Zaid Ibrahim:

“A promise that the Official Secrets Act 1972 in its current form will be repealed will tell Malaysians that corrupt leaders can no longer hide behind draconian legislation. If this act is repealed, our ministers, top civil servants and police chiefs in future will no longer be so filthy rich to steal as they like. It will tell the people that those in the government will not be able to classify documents as official secrets at whim. With this act of revocation, those who have stolen government property will find themselves facing the attention of the world…”

If I quoted all the statements condemning the OSA by former dissidents who now sit in the new government, they would run into reams.

I still remember the rousing speeches against the OSA by all these former “democrats” since the seventies. These are recorded in a publication by eco-activist Gurmit Singh KS during the eighties titled: “No to Secrecy: The campaign against 1986's amendments to the OSA”.

Even more recently on Aug 17, 2017, DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang told a forum that “the Pakatan Harapan coalition will repeal the Official Secrets Act (OSA) and replace it with and a new Freedom of Information Act if it comes into power at the next elections…we are committed to work towards the repeal of the OSA and fight for its inclusion in the Pakatan Harapan manifesto to show its commitment to transparency in line with the spirit of the ‘New Malaysia’”.

The infringement of the rule of law by the OSA was best summed up by Param Cumaraswamy, then president of the Malaysian Bar in 1986:

“With the definition of official secret so wide, coupled with the one-year minimum sentence and the power of the courts curtailed, there is no doubt that the OSA infringes the concept of the rule of law. It confers wide discretionary powers on public officers without adequate protection against abuse. The powers of our courts, which are traditionally the guardians of our freedoms, will be curtailed. The right to free speech and expression guaranteed under our Constitution will be unduly restricted…”

Lim Guan Eng insists that Malaysia is in trouble. And it is all because of the alleged RM1 trillion national debt that Najib Tun Razak cost Malaysia — which was declared at only RM680 billion instead of RM1 trillion.

In other words, Najib did not declare an additional RM320 billion in debts. And if Malaysia’s debts had been RM680 billion instead of RM1 trillion, then Malaysia would not be in trouble.

First of all, one-third of those so-called RM1 trillion* debts are NOT debts but are contingent liabilities. And contingent liabilities are NOT debts.

Even more importantly, while Guan Eng keeps talking every day about Najib’s so-called RM1 trillion national debt, how many trillions has Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s national car cost Malaysia?

Yes, according to Bank Negara, Proton has cost Malaysia trillions. Pakatan Harapan keeps talking about Najib’s so-called multi-billion 1MDB losses and the alleged RM1 trillion national debt. But what about the trillions that Mahathir’s Proton cost Malaysia? Why not discuss this as well?

And now Mahathir wants to add to those trillions by launching his Third National Car.

Guan Eng, let us also talk about that. Jangan jadi Cina pukimak. Don’t keep quiet and avoid talking about how much Mahathir cost Malaysia. You keep talking about the billions of 1MDB losses and the RM1 trillion national debt while you keep silent about Mahathir’s disaster amounting to trillions.

"Thank God, one more slander towards the Barisan Nasional government before the 14th general election has been corrected. What was good was accused as wicked," Najib said in a Facebook post on Monday.

The former premier said he felt "vindicated" after Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh said the industrial park's infamous wall only surrounds the Alliance Steel (M) Sdn Bhd complex and not the entire MCKIP as previously alleged.

After returning from his trip to China, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir called for the solid wall – dubbed "the Great Wall of China in Kuantan" by some – surrounding the MCKIP to be dismantled.

"An industrial park is not a foreign country. It should be under the laws of Malaysia. Cutting out entry to local officials is not the right thing to do," he was reported as saying.

Fuziah, who is also Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, said she would inform the Prime Minister of the error.

Najib also pointed out that the Qinzhou Road was named to commemorate MCKIP's relationship with the Qinzhou China-Malaysia Industrial Park (QCMIP) in China.

According to Najib, there were accusations against him of "selling out the country" because of the name. He labelled this "another "propaganda" by Pakatan Harapan.

Najib also said Malaysia owned the same percentage of shares in QCMIP as China in MCKIP, but the former is three times bigger and produced over RM6bil's worth of goods in 2017 alone.

"If we are competent in mathematics and are not always mistaken about decimal points, we would understand that owning 50 per cent of an industrial park for a market of 1.4 billion people is better than owning 100 per cent for only 30 million people," he said.

The word 'Redux' is an adjective meaning "brought back; resurgent". What the Commander said is that Pakatan today is just another BN (brought back by ... guess who? wakakaka), and he blames that frightening observation on Pakatan's supporters or "base".I call those PH supporters (base) the goofy gullible guppies, wakakaka.

some are not only gullible but morons with reading problems, wakakaka

Commander wrote: Harapan is waffling on its promises because its base does not demand that it keeps them. Often, this base and various political pundits make excuses for why Harapan needs time to fulfil certain promises instead.This may be true in specific issues – like education reform, for instance – but where repealing certain laws, abandoning certain propaganda organs, or just fulfilling certain promises such as recognising the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC), this excuse of needing more time is complete horse manure.

What Commander said of the excuse by Pakatan of needing more time, for example, to recognise the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) (as an example) is SHEER BULLSHIT.Pakatan or its Education Minister has refused (perhaps under "someone's" instructions and control) is because he knows the supporters (Pakatan base) would even make excuses for his refusal, a la Commander's write-up on "Often, this base and various political pundits make excuses for why Harapan needs time to fulfil certain promises instead".Today in this post I will focus ONLY on one subject, the UNwillingness (horse manure, wakakaka) of the Mahathir-government in recognising the UEC,

Mahathir as then Education Minister in 1975 hated the UEC so much, that he threatened the Chinese educationists about issuing the UEC.

On this episode of Mahathir's anti-Chinese outburst, Dr Kua Kia Soong enlightened us via an extract of FMT:

Dr Kua Kia Soong

he could live peacefully in Britain if he wishes but chose to remain in Malaysia to fight and struggle for the reform battle

[his wife is British & he was told by British authorities he is eligible to stay in Britain permanently]

At independence in 1957, there were 86 Chinese secondary schools in Malaya.

It was only after the 1961 Education Act that many of these schools were forced to become English-medium (yes, not Malay-medium) at the time. Only 14 Chinese secondary schools remained as “independent” schools.

It was after the “Independent Schools’ Revival Movement” in the 1970s that the number of MICSS (Malaysian Independent Chinese Secondary Schools) climbed to 60.In 1975, when the MICSS decided to hold its first Unified Examination (UEC), the Chinese education leaders were summoned to Parliament by then Education Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and were told in no uncertain terms to cancel the examination “or else…!”

He did not ask for any response and dismissed the Chinese educationalists with a curt "That is all."

The Chinese education leaders carried on regardless of the consequences and the UEC has been held every year since. To date,there has never been a leak in any UEC examinations and the curriculum and marking of exam scripts are carried out every year with professional precision.

Finally, Dr Kua gave a flying kick into the face of our so-called Education Ministry by telling us:Malaysians should also know that there are hundreds of non-Chinese students in the MICSS and more than 80,000 non-Chinese students in Chinese-medium primary schools of Malaysia.

This is in sharp contrast to Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) that does not admit ANY “non-Bumiputeras” into this public institution even though “non-Bumiputera” taxpayers have also paid for this institution.

Does UiTM violate national sovereignty? This Bumiputeras-only policy definitely violates the International Convention for the Eradication of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).A form of the previous White South Africa's apartheid policy and current Israeli 'Jewish State' status.

In March this year (just before GE14), the Malaysian Chinese News published Tun M: Delay in recognising UEC as Umno is afraid of losing Malay votes, extracts of which follows:On how Pakatan Harapan would support the development of Chinese education in the country, including building Chinese independent schools and recognition of the Unified Chinese educational certificate (UEC), Dr Mahathir replied: “Right. However, Chinese independent schools are set up by the Chinese. They want their Chinese education, mainly education from China.”

What utter bull.

What a humongous lie that Chinese independent schools want their Chinese education to be mainly from China. Wah, Mr Tai Tok-Kok. That has been the perpetual bullshit to suppress the recognition of the UEC.

Despite the Chinese independent schools following as closely as possible the Malaysian educational requirements, Mahathir has singularly been the man who was strongly (and I suspect STILL is but perhaps now silently, wakakaka) against the UEC.

Under him, the previous Malay-dominated government was determined, whatever, whenever, however, to NOT recognise the UEC, which ironically has already long been recognised by 400 foreign tertiary educational institutions throughout the world, including universities in France, Germany and Russia, let alone the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, NZ, Singapore and Chinese speaking nations like China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.It has been 43 years since Mahathir threatened Chinese educationists NOT to issue the UEC, so Commander Thayaparan has been spot on when he wrote it's COMPLETE horse manure why Harapan needs time to recognise the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC), ...... more so when (as Commander wrote) ...Mahathir Mohamad was an Umno operative, he made unilateral decisions all the time. He got things done with just a stroke of a pen. Of course, during his brief tenure as opposition leader, he disavowed those things which were deemed not kosher and pleaded ignorance.But hasn't the Old Fox been up to his unilateral dictatorial self again?But Commander also wrote:Seriously, even if the MCA said something constructive, the mobs would tear them to pieces.

metamorphosis of gullible guppies into vicious rabid hell-hounds

Meanwhile, DAP political operatives hardly raise their voices against anything Mahathir says, because to do so would mean that they were somehow in charge.And God knows, we do not want to spook the Malays. Or, at least, I hope that is the reason, because if they truly supported whatever the prime minister says or does because they think he is right, we are truly screwed.

Someone like Kua Kia Soong questions why Harapan is reneging on its election promises or at least waffling on them, and he is vilified. But every one of his articles is a reminder that the promises made could be carried out if there was a political will to do so; or if there isn’t, if Harapan supporters kicked up a fuss.

Every time the MCA raises an issue, they have their track record about collaborating with Umno thrown back at them. Never mind that the real power brokers in Harapan are not only cut from the same mould as Umno, but as the weeks have dragged on, are demonstrating that they are playing the same games they did when the party was at its nadir.

Years back, I did wonder whether Rafizi Ramli has too many musuh dalam selimut in PKR.

Yes, Rafizi does have his bullshit element (which most politicians have), but nonetheless, he is not only an important PKR asset-leader but potentially a future PM of a Pakatan government, say in about 15 years time (in 3 parliamentary terms).Best of all, unlike others in his party wakakaka, he is at present not encumbered with the millstone of corruption allegations. I hope he maintains his political and personal administrative hygiene.

His few deficiencies, if at all we can even call them deficiencies, would be his relatively young age (like Nurul Izzah) and his propensity towards sensationalising (some examples follow in photographs-images), wakakaka.

Notwithstanding Rafizi’s silence on many of his own party’s questionable conduct, he is not just a rising star but will one day be undoubtedly a supernova. He’s most of all a Melayu and a very very bright one in a land where 60% of the population are Melayu, in other words a man accepted and destined to be PM or at least the powerful Finance Minister, unless he is stopped as Ku Li was.

Do him in? You can bet his musuh dalam selimut are already out to destroy him. He is far too dangerous and may even oust Azmin as PKR deputy president. That is unlikely at this stage but it possibility has upset very very important people.

Sun Daily publishes PKR in jeopardy? (extracts):PETALING JAYA: Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) faces the possibility of being deregistered if it allows former Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli to contest the deputy president's post in the coming party election.

Wakakaka, he sure has powerful enemies who are determined he doesn't even get to the starting point for the PKR deputy presidential contest in November.A party source said Rafizi claims to have been given special permission by the Registrar of Societies (RoS) to contest in the polls.In early February the Session Courts convicted Rafizi and sentenced him to be jailed for 30 months for exposing the bank account details related to National Feedlot Corporation Sdn Bhd (NFC) and its chairman Datuk Seri Dr Mohamad Salleh Ismail.

Thus he was barred from standing in GE14. I did wonder about, wakakaka.

But on June this year, the Court of Appeal bound him over on a two-year, RM10,000 good behaviour bond, with one surety.

So, can he now stand for elections, whether intra party or state/federal elections?

The RM10,000 is just a good behaviour bond and not a fine - but nonetheless, does that constitute being over the RM3,000 limit for an elected politician?

"But no one has seen this so-called letter that Rafizi claims to have received. If he has such a letter, he must show it or publish it for everyone to see.

"Party regulations do not allow a person who has been convicted to contest in party elections but this has not stopped Rafizi from contesting," the source said.The source, who is a senior member in the party, said the party's central election committee has not come out with a statement on whether party regulations have been breached.Well, tough for his detractors because MM Online has just published RoS confirms giving Rafizi nod to contest PKR polls which states:

The Registrar of Societies (RoS) confirmed today that it has granted PKR’s Rafizi Ramli special permission to contest in the party polls.

Despite that, it insisted that no preferential treatment had been given, stating that it has approved six such applications as of July 31 this year.

“Any exemption is based on the application submitted by any individual processed using the standard operating procedure based on the Societies Act 1966,” its director-general Masyati Abang Ibrahim said in a statement.

Hmmm, It seems the previous DG, Surayati Ibrahim, has gone - that's for fCking around with the Pribumi party registration, wakakaka.Thus, Rafizi accusing the current PM of plotting against Anwar with such a Damocles' Sword hanging over his head is very unwise but then, that's Rafizi Ramli, wakakaka.

Yes sir, Rafizi hasn't helped himself when he stated very publicly that Anwar needs a party deputy who is totally committed to his (Anwar's) cause, especially when he becomes PM in two years time, though Mahathir has since showed his reluctanceto leave by that time as promised. We predicted that based on two suspicions, namely:

(a) Mahathir reckons he won't be able to set in place his "agenda" by that time, and

(b) Mahathir really hates Anwar and will never in sincerity approve of that promised succession.

Rafizi said Anwar's second-in-command must ensure that the PKR leader continues with his visions to reform Malaysia.

"It is not our job to topple Anwar in his political career and his future," Rafizi told a crowd of 200 at the party's 20th anniversary do - #reformasi20tahun - in Bayan Baru, Penang, last night.

But there has been speculation that Azmin and Mahathir have been plotting against Anwar, together with Mahathir's closest ally Daim Zainuddin, but the trio has denied the claim and challenged their accuser to provide proof.

anti-Anwar

anti-Anwar

Azmin nephew Maddy yang tersayang

As if it wasn't enough that Rafizi was thought originally to be ineleigible to stand for PKR's deputy presidency contest, here comes another barrage - Malaysiakini reports:

Tian Chua was like Rafizi, barred from standing in GE14

PKR vice-president Tian Chua slammed Rafizi's camp, which emerged after the 2008 political tsunami, saying that Rafizi and his team have only half of the political experience of Azmin, who has been participating in the reformasi movement 10 years earlier.Seen as pro-Azmin, Tian Chua is seeking to defend his post of vice-president in the party.Wakakaka, the Dwarfs has struck.

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 27 — The decision to impose a total ban on child marriage has not been finalised yet, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail told the Dewan Negara today.Dr Wan Azizah, who is also women, family and community development minister, said the matter was still under study, including in terms of the legal and social implications if the minimum age of marriage was increased to 18 years.

And just how can lil' sweeties expect any protection from this useless minister when the issue of underage marriagewas still under study.

The project has faced uncertainty since Dr Mahathir’s coalition scored a shock victory at a May general election, as developer Country Garden Holdings Co looks to revive faltering demand for a city planned to be home to 700,000 people.

“One thing is certain, that city that is going to be built cannot be sold to foreigners,” Dr Mahathir told a news conference in Kuala Lumpur, the capital.

“We are not going to give visas for people to come and live here,” he added. “Our objection is because it was built for foreigners, not built for Malaysians. Most Malaysians are unable to buy those flats.”

A Country Garden official said the company did not have any immediate response to Dr Mahathir’s comments.

Opposition to the project helped drive Dr Mahathir’s election campaign, during which he called it, and other Chinese-backed projects, evidence of his predecessor selling Malaysia to China.

Malaysians living in Johor complained of large numbers of Chinese people snapping up properties in Forest City, besides concerns of environmental damage, a glut in the property market, and the impact of land reclamation on fisheries.

Country Garden has developed just a fraction of the planned reclamation of 20 sq km, where Chinese nationals accounted for about 70 per cent of apartment buyers last year.

Well, I guess there goes the "Malaysia My Second Home" program.

And here comes Mahathir's intended WAR with China. I don't think the Chinese (China) will be too pleased with Maddy screwing up a RM410 Billion project which had Malaysian approval. It bodes ill for Malaysian-China relationship and trade.

It also bespeaks a PM who doesn't care about Malaysia integrity and honouring of contracts, agreements and treaties - as he had shown in the barring of Chin Peng's return to Sitiawan, not even the late Malaysian's ashes.

About Me

Just a bloke interested in the socio-political whatnots around the world, particularly those in Malaysia. Loves a laugh or/and story or two, or more, but loves civility and courtesy much more, especially in politics